Acta Tropica xxx (2018) xxx-xxx

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Acta Tropica
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New records of chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) from Egyptian
pigeons and doves (Columbiformes), with description of one new species
Eslam Adlya⁠ ,⁠ ⁎⁠ , Mohamed Nassera⁠ , Doaa Solimana⁠ , Daniel R. Gustafssonb⁠ , Magdi Shehataa⁠

PR
a
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
b
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resources, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological
Resources, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

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Keywords: Little information is available about the chewing lice of wild birds of Egypt, including common groups such as pi-
Egypt geons and doves (Columbiformes). Through this work, parasitic chewing lice of common columbiformes of Egypt
New species were revised including new data. Three species of pigeons and doves (Streptopelia decaocto Frivaldszky 1838,
New records Spilopelia senegalensis Linnaeus 1766 and Columba livia Gmelin 1789) were examined for chewing lice at three
TE
Chewing lice
different localities. A total of 124 specimens of lice were collected. Nine species were identified from these sam-
Columbiformes
ples; one species (Columbicola joudiae n. sp.) was considered a new species to science, six species were recorded
Columbicola
Coloceras from Egypt for the first time, and two species have been identified in Egypt before. Taxonomic and ecological
Campanulotes remarks for all identified chewing lice samples are provided along with known and local hosts, measurements
Colpocephalum and material examined. Description and images of the new species are also provided.
EC

1. Introduction
The study of chewing lice has been neglected for many years in the
Middle East including Egypt (Nasser et al., 2015). The country located
on the main bird migration route between Europe and Africa. Its’ ter-
RR
pigeons around the world. Among the many species of Columbiformes,
the Rock Dove is the most widely domesticated by humans for hundreds
of years and have become feral in cities around the world (Beletsky,
2007). It has been bred into several diversities kept by hobbyists. Also,
several species of Columbiformes are used as food which reflects their

ritory includes a wide range of habitats generated by the Nile and the
high altitudes of Sinai Mountains, making Egypt a hot spot area for the
birds in the region (Elliott et al., 1999). Despite the large number of mi-
gratory and resident birds of the country, the knowledge of the Egypt-
ian chewing lice fauna is fragmentary and incomplete. The only previ-
ous studies on the Egyptian chewing louse fauna are those of Hafez and
CO
economical and biological importance (Blechman, 2006).
Chewing lice of Columbiformes have long been at the center of re-
search into host/parasite interactions (Pilgrim, 1976; Toro et al., 1999;
Clayton et al., 2003; Johnson et al., 2005). In total, twelve genera of
chewing lice are known to infest pigeons and doves including Auricotes
Kéler, 1939; Bonomiella Conci, 1942; Campanulotes Kéler, 1939; Cav-
ifera Clay & Price, 1970; Coloceras Taschenberg, 1882; Colpocephalum

Madbouly (1966a, 1966b, 1968a, 1968b). Up till now, only 61 chewing

lice species belonging to 31 genera have been recorded from the avi-
fauna of Egypt. This number is very small, compared to the number of
potential host species in the country (Hafez and Madbouly, 1966b).
Pigeons and doves form a cosmopolitan bird group found on all
continent except Antarctica (Shelley, 1872). They are classified in the
family Columbidae in the order Columbiformes. This family are di-
UN
Nitzsch, 1818; Columbicola Ewing, 1929; Hohorstiella Eichler, 1940;
Kodocephalon Kéler, 1939; Physconelloides Ewing, 1927; Quateia Price
& Emerson, 1975 and Turturicola Clay & Meinertzhagen, 1938. Collec-
tively, these genera include around 450 species (Price et al., 2003). De-
spite the ubiquity of publications on pigeon and dove lice, none of them
deal with this group in the Middle East (Eichler, 1952; Ansari, 1955a,
1955b; Lakshminarayana, 1979; Tendeiro, 1973, 1974, 1984; Adams et

vided into three subfamilies, Columbinae, Claravinae, Raphinae (Cabot

et al., 1996). There are around 43 genera and 319 species of doves and al., 2005; Naz et al., 2012).
Exploration of ectoparasites, especially chewing lice, of Columbi-
formes from Egypt is essential, not only for the local interest but also

⁎ Corresponding author.
Email address: Eslam.Adly@sci.asu.edu.eg (E. Adly)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2018.10.016
Received 8 September 2018; Received in revised form 27 October 2018; Accepted 27 October 2018
Available online xxx
0001-706/ © 2018.